Recently, several systems which send and receive video and audio to carry out videoconferences have been suggested. There is a known system, for example, which comprises a host side terminal and a plurality of member side terminals connected to the host side terminal by telephone lines. The host side terminal includes a conference connection device; a television phone; a screen dividing device which divides a screen into multiple regions and allocates attendees' video to each divided region; a monitor television for displaying a video including the attendees' video allocated to each divided region; and a remote video transmission circuit which determines transmission timing of members' videos to the host side terminal. The plurality of member side terminals includes the television phone and the remote video transmission circuit (see Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Publication No. H4-140990).
There is also a known multi-geographical-location videoconference system which comprises a multi-geographical-location videoconference control device and a videoconference/telephone terminal connected to the multi-geographical-location videoconference device via a network. The multi-geographical-location videoconference control device contains a plurality of videoconference/telephone terminals, controls the multi-geographical-location videoconference where video and audio are exchanged among these videoconference/telephone terminals, and controls a configuration of the multi-geographical-location videoconference in accordance with a push button signal from the videoconference/telephone terminals (see Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-69249).
Moreover, the present inventor has filed a Japanese patent application of a communication system which comprises a local administrator server connected to the television phone and a local server wherein the local server is connected to the television phone and a camera-equipped-microphone including a mirror. Video and audio signals, from the television phone selected by the local administrator server or from a camera-equipped-microphone selected by a local server which is selected by the local administrator server, are delivered to all the television phones (Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-124629).
However, because an administrator at a head office or a local office runs a conference by operating an administrator computer or a line switching device while viewing and listening to a television phone, an operating procedure is complicated; it is easy to lose concentration; and who is requesting utterance etc. tends to be overlooked.